April 8: Encyclopedia - April 8

April 8

April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). There are 267 days remaining in the year.

April 8 - Events

• 217 - Roman emperor Caracalla is assassinated (and succeeded) by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus
• 1203 - Congress in Bilino Polje, where Ban Kulin officially declared his allegiance to the Catholic Church and denounced the heresy.
• 1730 - Shearith Israel, the first synagogue in New York City, is dedicated.
• 1742 - The first performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio The Messiah, in Dublin.
• 1767 - Ayutthaya kingdom fell to Burmese invaders.
• 1820 - The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.
• 1832 - Black Hawk War: Around 300 United States 6th Infantry troops leave Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis to fight the Sauk Native Americans.
• 1893 - First recorded college basketball game occurs in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania when the Geneva College Covenanters defeated the New Brighton YMCA.
• 1895 - The United States Supreme Court declared income tax to be unconstitutional in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.
• 1899 - Martha Place becomes the first woman to be executed in an electric chair.
• 1904 - France and the United Kingdom sign the Entente cordiale.
• 1904 - Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
• 1910 - The Los Angeles Motordome opened near Playa del Rey, California.
• 1913 - The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified requiring direct election of Senators.
• 1916 - In Corona, California, auto racer Bob Burman crashed through a crowd barrier at the last Boulevard Race, killing himself, his mechanic and a track policeman, and badly injuring five spectators.
• 1918 - World War I: Actors Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York, New York's financial district.
• 1926 - Benito Mussolini is "slightly wounded in the nose" after being shot with a revolver by Violet Gibson, an Irish woman and sister of Baron Ashbourne).
• 1929 - Indian Independence Movement At Delhi Central Assembly, Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt threw handouts, and bombs in a corridor not to cause injury and courted arrest.
• 1935 - The Works Progress Administration is formed when the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 becomes law.
• 1942 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad - Soviet Union forces open a much-needed railway link to Leningrad.
• 1945 - At the POW camp at Flossenbürg, pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer is hanged.
• 1952 - In a radio address to the nation from the White House, President Harry S. Truman calls for the seizure of all steel mills in the United States in order to prevent a nationwide strike.
• 1953 - Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by Kenya's British rulers.
• 1967 - In Vienna, Austria, Sandie Shaw wins the twelfth Eurovision Song Contest for the United Kingdom singing "Puppet on a String".
• 1971 - a 6 pound meteorite struck the home of Robert and Wanda Donahue in Wethersfield, Connecticut
• 1974 - At the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Hank Aaron breaks baseball great's Babe Ruth's record by hitting his 715th home run.
• 1975 - Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians manages his first game as major league baseball's first African American manager.
• 1975 - Vietnam War: After spending a week in South Vietnam, U.S. Army Chief of Staff Frederick Weyand gives a report to the U.S. Congress that South Vietnam will fall without additional military aid.
• 1985 - Bhopal disaster: India files suit against Union Carbide for the disaster which killed an estimated 2,000 and injured another 200,000.
• 1986 - Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California receiving 72% of the vote (voter turnout was also doubled over the previous mayoral election).
• 1987 - Los Angeles Dodgers executive Al Campanis resigns amid great controversy over racially-charged remarks he had made while on Nightline.
• 1989 - South Africa In Johannesburg, the Progressive Federal Party, Independent party, National Democratic Movement and the force of "Ontevrede Afrikaners" or dissatisfied Afrikaners merged to form the Democratic Party.
• 1990 - Twin Peaks premieres.
• 1992 - Retired tennis great Arthur Ashe announces to the world that he has AIDS, acquired from blood transfusions during one of his two heart surgeries.
• 1994 - Body of Kurt Cobain discovered in his Washington home.
• 1999 - Haryana Gana Parishad, a political party in the Indian state of Haryana, merges with the Indian National Congress.
• 2000 - A U.S. Marine Corps V-22 Osprey crashes during landing at Marana, Arizona killing 19.
• 2002 - Ed McMahon files a US$20 million lawsuit against his insurance company and others regarding a toxic mold infecting McMahon's Beverly Hills, California home.
• 2004 - Darfur conflict: The Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement is signed by the Sudanese government and two rebel groups.
• 2004 - The famous Japanese economist and former professor at Waseda University graduate school Kazuhide Uekusa was arrested on the escalator of JR Shinagawa Station because of trying to peep under a high school girl's skirt with his hand mirror.
• 2005 - Funeral of Pope John Paul II

April 8 - Births

• 563 BC - Gautama Buddha, Indian religious leader (d. 483 BC)
• 1320 - King Peter I of Portugal (d. 1367)
• 1533 - Claudio Merulo, Italian composer (d. 1604)
• 1541 - Michele Mercati, Italian physician and gardener (d. 1593)
• 1605 - King Philip IV of Spain, (d. 1665)
• 1641 - Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English statesman (d. 1704)
• 1692 - Giuseppe Tartini, Italian composer (d. 1770)
• 1859 - Edmund Husserl, Austrian philosopher (d. 1938)
• 1865 - Charles W. Woodworth, American entomologist (d. 1940)
• 1868 - King Christian IX of Denmark (d. 1906)
• 1874 - Stanisław Taczak, Polish general, commander-in-chief of the Greater Poland Uprising (d.1960)
• 1875 - King Albert I of Belgium (d. 1934)
• 1889 - Sir Adrian Boult, English conductor (d. 1983)
• 1892 - Mary Pickford, Canadian actress and studio founder (d. 1979)
• 1904 - John Hicks, English economist, Bank of Sweden Prize winner (d. 1989)
• 1905 - Helen Joseph, South African anti-apartheid activist (d. 1992)
• 1905 - Erwin Keller, German field hockey player
• 1911 - Melvin Calvin, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)
• 1911 - Emil Cioran, Romanian philosopher and essayist (d. 1995)
• 1912 - Alois Brunner, Austrian Nazi
• 1912 - Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (d. 1969)
• 1914 - María Félix, Mexican actress (d. 2002)
• 1918 - Betty Ford, First Lady of the United States
• 1919 - Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia
• 1921 - Franco Corelli, Italian tenor (d. 2003)
• 1923 - George Fisher, American cartoonist (d. 2003)
• 1923 - Edward Mulhare, Irish actor (d. 1997)
• 1926 - Jürgen Moltmann, German theologian
• 1928 - John Gavin, American actor and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
• 1929 - Walter Berry, Austrian bass-baritone (d. 2000)
• 1929 - Jacques Brel, Belgian singer and composer (d. 1978)
• 1930 - Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma, Duke of Parma, French-born fascist
• 1933 - Fred Ebb, American composer (d. 2004)
• 1934 - Kurokawa Kisho, Japanese architect
• 1938 - Kofi Annan, Ghanian United Nations Secretary General, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• 1940 - John Havlicek, American basketball player
• 1941 - Vivienne Westwood, English fashion designer
• 1943 - Michael Bennett, American dancer, choreographer, and theater director (d. 1987)
• 1943 - Miller Farr, American football player
• 1946 - Catfish Hunter, baseball player
• 1946 - Tim Thomerson, American actor
• 1947 - Tom DeLay, American politician
• 1947 - Robert Kiyosaki, American investor, businessman, and writer
• 1947 - Larry Norman, American singer and songwriter
• 1949 - John Madden, English director
• 1949 - Brenda Russell, American singer and songwriter
• 1954 - Gary Carter, baseball player
• 1955 - Barbara Kingsolver, American novelist
• 1960 - John Schneider, American actor
• 1963 - Julian Lennon, English musician and singer
• 1963 - Alec Stewart, English cricketer
• 1964 - Biz Markie, American rapper and disc jockey
• 1966 - Robin Wright Penn, American actress
• 1966 - Mazinho, Brazilian football player
• 1968 - Patricia Arquette, American actress
• 1971 - Chino XL, American rapper
• 1972 - Paul Grey, American bassist (Slipknot)
• 1973 - Bobby Ologun, Nigerian television performer and martial artist
• 1977 - Mark Spencer, computer programmer
• 1979 - Alexi Laiho, Finnish guitarist and singer (Children of Bodom)
• 1980 - Manuel Ortega, Austrian singer
• 1980 - Katee Sackhoff, American actress
• 1982 - Judy Star, Canadian actress

April 8 - Deaths

• 217 - Caracalla, Roman Emperor (b. 186)
• 956 - Gilbert of Chalon, Duke of Burgundy
• 1143 - John II Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1087)
• 1364 - King John II of France (b. 1319)
• 1461 - Georg Purbach, German mathematician and astronomer (b. 1423)
• 1492 - Lorenzo de Medici, ruler of Florence (b. 1449)
• 1586 - Martin Chemnitz, Lutheran reformer and theologian (b. 1522)
• 1587 - John Foxe, English writer (b. 1516)
• 1691 - Carlo Rainaldi, Italian architect (b. 1611)
• 1697 - Niels Juel, Danish admiral (b. 1629)
• 1704 - Hiob Ludolf, German orientalist (b. 1624)
• 1704 - Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney, English statesman (b. 1641)
• 1725 - John Wise, English clergyman (b. 1652)
• 1848 - Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (b. 1797)
• 1857 - Mangal Pandey, Indian soldier
• 1919 - Loránd Eötvös, Hungarian physicist (b. 1848)
• 1920 - Charles Tomlinson Griffes, American composer (b. 1884)
• 1931 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
• 1936 - Robert Bárány, Austrian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1876)
• 1938 - Joe "King" Oliver, American musician (b. 1885)
• 1950 - Vaslav Nijinsky, Polish-born ballet dancer (b. 1890)
• 1965 - Lars Hanson, Swedish actor (b. 1965)
• 1973 - Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist (b. 1881)
• 1978 - Ford Frick, baseball commissioner
• 1981 - Omar Bradley, U.S. general (b. 1893)
• 1984 - Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1894)
• 1985 - J. Fred Coots, American Songwriter (b. 1897)
• 1990 - Ryan White, American activist (b. 1971)
• 1991 - Per Yngve "Dead" Ohlin, Norwegian musician (black metal)
• 1992 - Daniel Bovet, Swiss-born pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1907)
• 1993 - Marian Anderson, American contralto (b. 1897)
• 1996 - Ben Johnson, American actor (b. 1918)
• 1997 - Laura Nyro, American singer and composer (b. 1947)
• 2000 - Claire Trevor, American actress (b. 1910)
• 2002 - Maria Felix, Mexican actress (b. 1914)
• 2003 - Anita Borg, American computer scientist (b. 1949)
• 2004 - Bruce Edwards, golf caddy (b. 1954)

April 8 - Holidays and observances

• Worldwide Roma Nation Day

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "April 8", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki